Yahoo Finance HP’s next CFO makes the leap from Medtronic in latest example of top finance chiefs carving new paths
Good morning. CFO transitions this year are continuing, with tech giant HP on Wednesday naming Karen Parkhill as its next finance chief, effective Aug. 5. Parkhill makes the leap to HP from Medtronic, a Global Fortune 500 firm.
Since 2016, she's served as EVP and CFO at Medtronic, a global provider of medical products such as cardiac devices, surgical tools, and insulin pumps. It was cofounded more than 70 years ago by the inventor of the battery-powered pacemaker. (Medtronic, which has experienced some turnover recently with high-ranking executives, also announced on Wednesday Parkhill will continue as CFO until Aug. 2 while the company evaluates both internal and external candidates to succeed her.)
Parkhill is making the switch from one of the world's largest medical devices companies to a software and computing services giant. This just goes to show that what companies want first and foremost in a CFO is someone with financial acumen and leadership capabilities honed through experience, Scott W. Simmons, co-managing partner of the executive search firm Crist Kolder Associates, recently told me. Another example is Anat Ashkenazi, the CFO at pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, who was recently named the next CFO and SVP of Google and Alphabet. “You’ve got to get into an industry, and at a company, that you find exciting and fascinating,” Simmons said.
HP CEO Enrique Lores said in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday that Parkhill’s experience and expertise will help drive continued growth: “I look forward to learning from Karen and partnering with her to advance our Future Ready strategy."
Parkhill said in a statement that she’s “excited to join HP at such a pivotal time for the company and the industry.”
At HP (no. 82 in the Fortune 500), Parkill succeeds Marie Myers, CFO since 2021 but with the company for more than 20 years. Myers stepped down to join Hewlett Packard Enterprise as EVP and CFO in January. Interim CFO Tim Brown will be returning to his role as the head of print finance.
Parkhill will receive an annual base salary of $950,000 at HP, with an annual cash bonus of 135% of base salary, according to an SEC filing. She's set to receive a cash signing bonus of $1.5 million—half payable on her six-month anniversary and half on her one-year anniversary.
For the past 13 years, Parkhill has been a CFO at publicly traded companies, but she didn’t take the traditional route to get there. She joined JPMorgan in 1992 and worked in investment banking, gaining global experience in M&A and capital markets. Parkhill then rose to CFO for the commercial banking business at the firm. After five years, she then moved to Comerica as vice chairman and CFO.
When I first sat down for a conversation with Parkhill in 2021, she told me that her love of math and business pointed her in the direction of finance. And, last year, she said that when exploring careers toward the end of college, she realized the most coveted and difficult job to land post-college was in investment banking.
“I am one who continually seeks the next highest challenge,” Parkhill said.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
